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Giving Back

PLACE.A particular position or point in space; an area with definite or indefinite boundaries.

How I love to give back: In 2006 I founded PLACE concerts, a regular series of ‘concerts in miniature’ which I perform on a volunteer basis to community groups. These have included adult care homes, hospice centres, retirement homes, hospitals and schools. PLACE concerts are an arena to explore everything I personally love about performing, and are intended for a range of audiences that usually do not hear live music due to various circumstances.

How long does each concert last? My performances run no more than 40 minutes and are littered with anecdotes, stories about the composers and contain much audience interaction. These are all intended to be held in informal settings with no requirement other than a gathering of a community of individuals in a single space. I bring the rest.

Aims: When people gather together to listen to a musical performance, I believe the concept of ‘place’ meshes together into one unique concert experience for everyone, myself the performer included. These concerts aim to be the medium for unlocking ideas of place, such as stories that speak of:

The external area where the performance is held

A geographical landscape to where the music might be linked

A place in historical time which the music might evoke

A certain moment within the composer’s own story

Chatting with some audience members after a concert for Fellowship Square, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Why: Musical performance can be healing. It gives us the space for the intangible and unconscious areas we go to when music is heard, such as an internal positioning within our body, mind and spirit. Live performance bring us to an utterly familiar part of the everyday, or perhaps to nostalgic places we know intimately. Simultaneously, our inner worlds might surface; maybe unfamiliar landscapes or unrealised thoughts emerge.The multiple places that congregate in one performance setting become the arena for a mixture of these energies.

Join me: Do you have a community that would benefit from hearing live music in this medium? Please contact me via jqflute@gmail.com to speak about the possibility of a voluntary visit, I’d love to chat.

Feedback

“Thank you so much for coming in. It’s lovely for the children to meet someone who’s so interested in music and is happy to explore the way it makes them feel. I could tell from the children’s responses they were really thinking carefully about the questions you were asking and the effect the pieces had on them. Thanks once again!” — Jonathan Hart, primary school music teacher + pianist

“Thank you so much for giving up your time to come into school today. The children were very enthusiastic and there was a lot of talk, after you left, about wanting to play an instrument so it looks as though you have truly inspired them with your wonderful playing.You certainly inspired me: will be practising hard this evening!! With very many thanks again.” — Alison Day, primary school teacher + flautist

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Latest Reviews

‘An authoritative and informative dissection of tango performance practice… a fascinating exposé. With persuasive demonstrations of each etude, Dr. Quiñones gave a graphic depiction of the freedom we can bring to this music…’– Review by C. Britton, British Flute Society Journal, ‘Pan’.

“Jessica has the ability to shred all over sheet music !If you’re looking for a sample of her ability check out ‘Laughing with Angst’ by Paul Pinto.”-– Indabamusic.com